Thursday, July 17, 2008

I'll be the first to admit it - I'm puny. You know those people who come to work with a raging fever, just because they can't stand being home, even when they're sick? That's not me. At even the slightest hint of illness, I am inclined to stay home. Not because I enjoy laying around on the couch watching old movies and sleeping (okay, so maybe that's part of it). It's because I know my body to know well enough when I can curb off illness by just being still.

Once, I woke up and felt tired and stayed home. Not just any tired - I felt exhausted after sleeping for a full 8 hours the night before. I then proceeded to have trouble keeping my eyes open for the next five hours, slept most of the day and slept through the next night as well. The day after, I felt perfectly okay, though still a little tired. I know my body was going to rebel if I didn't give it that extra sleep it was forcing me into. I would have waged a war with my immune system, and it wouldn't have been pretty. I think I got off pretty lightly by just sleeping it off.

The last two days, I've been home. Well- day and a half. I've had no fever, no chills, no vomiting. What I have had are an insanely pounding headache and the feeling of a constant faucet of mucus falling down the back of my throat. Lovely, right? Theoretically, I could have gone to work. I would have had a hard time concentrating, and I would have taken twice as long to do any given task, but I could have gone. Instead, I stayed home to lie on the couch and watch Firefly while eating ibuprofen like they were candy.

This morning I feel - okay, I guess. The headache has been downgraded to a nuisance, and everything I smell reeks of whatever is lining my nose and throat. If I were to truly give into my puniness, I'd stay home today, too. I just can't justify a third day out just because I feel a little...eh. Maybe if I had a fever, but not just because I'm a little out of it.

You may ridicule me, and tell me what I wuss I am. Go for it. After 25 years with my body, though, I have managed to spend the last 3 or 4 without a major illness -- only these little snafus of health, to which I've responded swiftly and expertly. I only have a few years left of this luxury before I'll be a mom and can no longer stay in bed all day when I feel a little under the weather. I'm going to milk it for all it's worth right now.